the-notebook 1.4.0

Encrypted bilingual (English/Persian) personal journal with AI assistant and MCP server

📓 The Notebook

English · فارسی

A feature-rich, encrypted, bilingual (English / Persian-Farsi) personal journal and diary application for the desktop — now with an AI assistant and MCP server for AI agent integration.

Your thoughts, your words, your keys.

---

🆕 What's New in v1.4.0

🤖 AI Assistant

Bring your own API key and ask questions about your journal:

• Ask Your Journal — query your past entries in natural language
• Auto-generated summaries — weekly or monthly digests
• Sentiment analysis — track your emotional patterns over time
• Auto-tagging suggestions — AI-suggested tags for new entries
• Supports Claude (Anthropic), OpenAI (GPT), Google Gemini, and Ollama (local, private, no API key needed)
• API keys are encrypted at rest with the same AES-GCM key as your entries

🔌 MCP Server (Model Context Protocol)

The first encrypted journal with MCP support. Any MCP-compatible AI client (Claude Desktop, OpenClaw, Hermes, Cursor, etc.) can:

• List folders, entries, and tags
• Read and search entries
• Create new entries and append to existing ones
• Get journal statistics

# Start the MCP server (from the command line)
the-notebook-mcp --password YOUR_PASS

# Or via environment variable
NOTEBOOK_PASS=YOUR_PASS the-notebook-mcp

🔒 Encrypted Attachments

File attachments are now encrypted with AES-256-GCM — the same crypto that protects your entries. Your photos, audio notes, and documents are safe at rest. (Toggleable in Settings.)

📓 Multiple Notebooks

Create separate journals for Work, Personal, Dreams — each with its own password and folder tree. Switch between them from the Data menu.

🏗️ Architecture Improvements

• PyPI package — pip install the-notebook
• XDG-compliant paths on Linux (~/.local/share/TheNotebook/)
• Config migration system — automatic upgrades between versions
• Threaded operations — no more UI freezes during re-encryption
• Proper logging — app.log with rotation for debugging
• Package structure — proper Python package, not flat scripts

---

✨ Features

Security

• 🔐 AES-256-GCM encryption for every entry, with an additional HMAC-SHA256 integrity tag (defence-in-depth).
• 🔑 PBKDF2 key derivation (480 000 iterations) with a per-installation random salt.
• 🔒 Auto-lock after a configurable period of inactivity; keys are zeroed from memory on lock.
• 🛡️ Exponential backoff on failed unlock attempts (non-blocking).
• 🔗 Optional OS keyring integration.
• 🔄 Safe password change — setting, changing, or removing the password re-encrypts every entry and every history snapshot in place.
• 🔒 Encrypted attachments — files attached to entries are encrypted with the same AES-GCM key as the entries themselves.

AI Assistant (NEW in v1.4.0)

• 🤖 Ask Your Journal — natural-language Q&A about your past entries.
• 📅 Auto-generated summaries — weekly or monthly digests.
• 💭 Sentiment analysis — track your emotional patterns.
• 🏷️ Auto-tagging suggestions — AI-suggested tags for new entries.
• 🔑 Bring your own API key — supports Claude, OpenAI, Gemini, Ollama.
• 🔒 API keys encrypted at rest with your journal password.
• 🤖 No vendor lock-in — switch providers anytime.

MCP Server (NEW in v1.4.0)

• 🔌 Expose your journal to any MCP-compatible AI client.
• 📖 Read tools: list folders, entries, tags; search; read; statistics.
• ✏️ Write tools: create entries, append to entries.
• 🔒 Requires the journal to be unlocked (password-gated).
• 🖥️ Runs as a standalone process via the-notebook-mcp.

Writing

• 📝 Rich-text editor with bold / italic / underline / strikethrough, bullet and numbered lists.
• 🖼️ Drag-and-drop images directly into entries.
• 🎙️ Audio notes — record voice memos inline (optional).
• 📎 File attachments (now encrypted!) of any type.
• 🌐 Three editor views: WYSIWYG, HTML source, Markdown preview.
• 🔄 Auto-save every 30 seconds.
• 🔤 Optional spell check.

Organization

• 📁 Folders and dated entries.
• 🏷️ Tags, ⭐ favorites, 😊 mood tracking.
• 🗑️ Soft-delete trash with restore.
• 📜 Version history with one-click restore.
• 📓 Multiple notebooks — separate journals with separate passwords.

Calendars & search

• 🗓️ Dual calendars: Gregorian and a custom Jalali (Persian) calendar.
• 🎉 Holiday / event labels for both Iranian and US calendars.
• 🔍 Full-text search via an inverted index.
• ⌨️ Command palette (Ctrl+Shift+P).
• 🔎 Quick search bar (Ctrl+F).

Insights & sync

• 📊 Statistics: activity graph, tag cloud, per-folder breakdown, mood chart.
• 💭 Daily writing prompts (20 each in English and Persian).
• 📆 "On This Day" memories.
• 🔄 Folder sync via Markdown.
• 💾 Backup & restore to/from zip.
• 📤 Batch export to HTML or Markdown.

---

🚀 Installation

Option 1: Download a pre-built binary (easiest)

Go to the Releases page and download the appropriate file for your platform.

Option 2: Install from PyPI

pip install the-notebook
the-notebook   # launch the app

# With AI support:
pip install the-notebook[ai]

# With everything (AI, MCP, audio, keyring, spellcheck):
pip install the-notebook[all]

# To run the MCP server:
pip install the-notebook[mcp]
the-notebook-mcp --password YOUR_PASS

Option 3: Build from source

git clone https://github.com/Bloody-Crow/The-Notebook.git
cd The-Notebook
pip install -e .
the-notebook

---

🤖 AI Assistant Setup

1. Open the app → Settings → AI Assistant Settings...
2. Choose your provider (Claude / OpenAI / Gemini / Ollama).
3. Paste your API key (it's encrypted with your journal password).
4. Optionally override the model name or set a custom base URL (for Ollama).
5. Use Data → Ask Your Journal... to ask questions about your entries.
6. Use Data → Generate Summary... for weekly/monthly digests.

Supported providers

Provider	API Key Needed	Model Example
Claude (Anthropic)	Yes	claude-sonnet-4-20250514
OpenAI (GPT)	Yes	gpt-4o
Google Gemini	Yes	gemini-1.5-pro
Ollama (local)	No	llama3.2

---

🔌 MCP Server Setup

The MCP server lets AI agents (Claude Desktop, OpenClaw, Hermes, Cursor, etc.) read and write your journal entries.

Starting the server

# If your journal has no password:
the-notebook-mcp

# If your journal is encrypted:
the-notebook-mcp --password YOUR_PASS

# Or via environment variable:
NOTEBOOK_PASS=YOUR_PASS the-notebook-mcp

Connecting from Claude Desktop

Add to your claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "the-notebook": {
      "command": "the-notebook-mcp",
      "args": ["--password", "YOUR_PASS"]
    }
  }
}

Available tools

Tool	Description
list_folders	List all journal folders
list_entries	List entries in a folder (optionally by date)
read_entry	Read the full content of an entry
search_entries	Full-text search across all entries
create_entry	Create a new journal entry
append_to_entry	Append text to an existing entry
list_tags	List all tags
get_statistics	Get journal statistics

---

📦 For Developers

Run the test suite

pip install -e ".[dev]"
pytest tests/ -v

Package structure

the_notebook/
├── __init__.py        # Package metadata
├── __main__.py        # python -m the_notebook entry point
├── main.py            # Application entry point
├── config.py          # Paths, config, migration, logging
├── crypto.py          # AES-GCM + HMAC encryption (text + binary)
├── models.py          # File I/O, search index, re-encryption
├── i18n.py            # Translations + Persian calendar events
├── widgets.py         # RichTextEditor + PersianCalendarWidget
├── dialogs.py         # All QDialog subclasses
├── main_window.py     # JournalApp main window
├── notebooks.py       # Multi-notebook manager
├── ai.py              # AI assistant (Claude/OpenAI/Gemini/Ollama)
├── mcp_server.py      # MCP server for AI agent integration
└── workers.py         # Threading utilities

---

🔒 Security

See SECURITY.md for the full threat model.

Short version:

• Entry text is encrypted with AES-256-GCM + HMAC-SHA256.
• Attachments are encrypted with the same key (new in v1.4.0).
• Filenames, folder names, tags, moods, favorites, and the search index are NOT encrypted.
• AI API keys are encrypted with your journal password.

---

📜 License

MIT — see LICENSE.

Copyright © 2025 Bloody-Crow.